Happy St. Patty's Day!

Being only part Irish, I never really celebrated St. Patrick's day aside from wearing green and maybe drinking a green beer. But now that I added Coffin to my name, its become quite the tradition! Momma Coffin's maiden name is McNally, so that makes the Coffin kids ALL Irish! Although I don't really enjoy corned beef, cabbage and beer bread, I enjoy the celebration immensely! My in-laws go all out, it's a night that includes dressing up, Irish prayers, Irish beer/liquor, traditional Irish songs and don't forget my favorite part, dancing the Irish jigs! Here is an example of what a St. Patty's Day looks like with the Coffins:

So, this year I wanted to make a couple of desserts to add to the celebration! I decided to make a Guinness Cake with Baileys Irish Cream Frosting, and for those of us who are trying to watch our weight, Mini Low-fat Key Lime pies.
I learned a couple of things last night throughout the 5-hour process.
1) I will never try to make TWO desserts at once EVER again.
2) You can NEVER grease a pan TOO MUCH.
First, the Key Lime pies. The recipe I found (and altered a bit) was to make Key Lime bars, I decided to put them in mini cupcake pans instead, cause anything baked in a mini cupcake pan is CUTE, in my opinion. I used butter flavored non-stick spray pretty generously, or so I thought. But being that I banged the bottom of those mini cupcake pans to the point of DESTROYING them (out of frustration) I am guessing I could have used a bit more. Not to mention, I left them in a little too long cause cause I was busy trying to make a WHOLE SEPARATE dessert! Yeah, not smart.
But after tasting one of these disastrous-key-lime-pies, I came to the conclusion that they are just too yummy to throw out. Here are the only few that came out decent-looking. (and by the way, I am not giving out the recipe cause I do not want to put you through the HELL that I went through to get this "eh" tasting key lime pie!)

So, on to the Guinness Cake. The recipe specifically stated to grease the pan in every nook and cranny, due to its tendency to stick. Again, I THOUGHT I did. But once I turned the cake pan over and only half of it fell out, I came to realization #2 (see above). What a mess I had! But it's okay, cause I had a different plan for these babies!

Cute, right? How else should a Guinness Cake be served? The only thing is that I can not tell you if the cake is good or not. I don't like Guinness and it definitely tasted like Guinness. But that frosting??? GET OUT OF TOWN! Forget the cake, where is the spoon!?!
Here is the recipe for the frosting:


Baileys Irish Cream Frosting

8 tbsn. unsalted butter, room temperature

4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

8 tbsn. Bailey’s Irish cream

Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium high until light and fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar until incorporated. Mix in Bailey’s until smooth. THAT's IT!

Here is the recipe for the Guinness Cake that I got from a co-worker. Thanks Patti!

And Patti got the recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

Chocolate Stout Cake
1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter or spray a bundt pan well; make sure you get in all of the nooks and crannies. (Some people even go so far as to brush the inside of their bundt pans with melted butter–you cannot be too careful!). Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cake to rack; cool completely in the pan.






You know what I did with all the leftover pieces of cake? Shoved them in little tupperware containers and topped them with a bit of icing and then gave them out at work as individual little cakes! Kind of like those shot-glass desserts that are so popular right now.




Happy St. Patricks Day everyone!